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Lindsay Links Economy To 1975 Emission Rules

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WASHINGTON, March 21—Mayor Lindsay said today that the economic health of New York City might depend on whether the Environmental Protection Agency granted the auto industry's request for a year's suspension of the 1975 Federal standards on emission of carbon monoxide and hydro. carbons.

New York is one of 36 cities that the E.P.A. has said could not meet the over‐all atmospheric standards for these pollutants even if the 1975 limitations on automobile exhausts were enforced. Therefore, these cities are under order from William D. Ruckelshaus, the E.P.A. administrator, to develop transportation plans to help meet the atmospheric standards.

Mayor Lindsay, in courtordered hearings on the requested year's suspension, told Mr. Ruckelshaus that New York's transportation plan, to be submitted April 15, was predicated on the assumption that “the auto companies will meet the 1975 standards of the [1970] Clean Air Act.”

Two Criteria Cited

Even if this assumption proves correct, Mayor Lindsay said, “the cost to the city and its residents will nonetheless run into billions of dollars.”

“If the assumption proves erroneous,” he continued, “the consequences could included complete ban of private cars [in the city] and gas rationing for commercial vehicles. Such consequences could destroy our economy.”

In urging the E. P. A. administrator to deny the one‐year suspension, Mayor Lindsay said he was addressing himself to two of the four criteria Congress made the basis for suspension.

These were whether suspension would be in the public interest and whether the auto companies had made “a goodfaith effort” to meet the standards for 1975 cars. These require a 90 per cent reduction of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions from the level of 1970‐model cars.

The Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered Mr. Ruckelshaus to consider these two criteria when it directed him on Feb. 10 to reopen hearings on suspension. He had refused to do so last May after application by the companies.

Statement by Court

On the question of public interest, Mr. Lindsay said the auto companies, in requesting postponement, had relied heavily on the court's statement that a year's suspension would have only a “modest” effect on over‐all air pollution; The court, Mr. Lindsay said, had based this conclusion on a 1972 report of the National Academy of Sciences.

“But the [academy's] finding” Mr. Lindsay argued, “was on national pollution levels. It failed to take into account the effects of a suspension in highly polluted areas — that is, areas with heavy concentrations of automobiles.”

When Congress enacted national standards, he said “it was concerned with public health,” not in areas where autos were few, but in cities where their emissions “endangered public health.”

For midtown New York, where most mileage is from current models, a year's suspension of the 1975 standards end a continuation of 1974 standards, Mr. Lindsay said, Would mean “a reduction of only ‐20 per cent in carbon monoxide [in the atmosphere] from 1970 levels,” but enforcement of the 1975 standards would mean a 52 per cent reduction.

When Mr. Ruckelshaus said he found these figures “startling,” Mayor Lindsay reminded him of the special situation in midtown New York. Taxicabs, he said, are responsible for 40 to 45 per cent of the emissions, and about half the cabs are replaced each year.

The Mayor then turned to the question of “good‐faith” effort by the companies and whether the standards could be achieved by catalytic converters that transform carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons into harmless water and carbon dioxide.

In testimony last week, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler once again insisted that this system, on which they have settled as most promising, would not meet the standards by 1975 because of various problems, including destruction of the rare‐metal catalyst or overheating.

Mr. Lindsay called on Fred C. Hart, Commissioner of the city's Department of Air Resources, to discuss these arguments.

Mr. Hart said that New York had fitted five old police cars with such catalysts. In tests, he said, the initial reduction of hydrocarbons was 72 per cent, and of carbon monoxide 75 per cent.

After 25,000 miles — the distance allowed by the E.P.A. for a change of catalysts —hydrocarbon reductions were 38 per cent and carbon monox:de reductions were 52 per cent.

Michael P. Walsh, director of the Bureau of Motor Vehicle Pollution Control, said this experience had convinced him that, with improvements in the catalyst itsPlr and modifications in the intake and exhaust manifolds, the system could meet the 1975 standards.

A version of this archives appears in print on March 22, 1973, on Page 86 of the New York edition with the headline: Lindsay Links Economy To 1975 Emission Rules. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe